UVM gets $3M to fund new medical school chair

The Millers, pictured here at UVM's Dudley H. Davis Center, donated $3 million Friday to create a new professorship. The donation is the latest in a string of high profile donations.(Photo: COURTESY OF UVM COMMUNICATIONS)

A $3 million donation by local philanthropists will create a new position at the University of Vermont's College of Medicine, the most recent gift in a string of high profile donations to the university.

Holly and Bob Miller gave money for the professor position, which will focus on palliative medicine — care designed to ease symptoms of often untreatable conditions. Robert E. Gramling, a doctor and associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, will be the first recipient, according to Friday's announcement by UVM.

In April, the medical school was the recipient of the largest donation in UVM's history. Nearly $20 million was donated to the school by Dr. Robert Larner and his wife, Helen.

Both gifts are part of an effort by UVM's private, nonprofit fundraising arm, The UVM Foundation, to raise $500 million for the university. The campaign, launched in October, has raised almost $300 million. The foundation was created in 2011.

Bob Miller is the founder and owner of Williston-based REM Development Co., the largest commercial real estate development firm in Vermont. His wife, Holly, is on the advisory board of UVM's College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

The couple donated a 15-acre piece of land in Williston to the UVM Medical Center in 2013. The land was valued at $13.1 million and is the hospital's largest donation to date.

The event was keynoted by B.J Miller, a doctor and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco and an internet sensation. Miller's TED talk, "What really matters at the end of life," has 3.8 million views. Miller suffered an electrocution when he was an undergraduate at Princeton University and lost his legs and left arm.

"For most people, the scariest thing about death isn't being dead, it's dying, suffering," Miller says in his talk. "It's a key distinction."

This article was first posted online June 10, 2016. Contact Cory Dawson at 802-651-4826 or cdawson2@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Dawson_and_Co

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